Veil of Lies

29

When Crispin returned from Newgate, he was grateful to find Jack waiting for him at his lodgings with a decent fire and a bowl of wine.

Crispin took the bowl and settled in the chair. Jack shrieked and fussed at Crispin’s wound. He peeled the coat off and pulled back the shirt to dress the angry gash as best he could before he knelt at Crispin’s feet and pulled off the muddy boots. Crispin wiggled his toes toward the hearth, luxuriating in the feel of the warmth on his feet and the wine in his belly. He closed his eyes and leaned back. His shoulder throbbed, but the pressure of the dressing minimized the pain.

“What happened at the bridge? How about that John Hoode being an Italian! Did you get him, Master Crispin?”

“Yes, Jack. I got him. Whether he is poisoned by Lombardy spies or executed by English justice, his fate is sealed.”

“What about Master Lionel? Did the sheriff arrest him?”

“Indeed. All in all, Wynchecombe was pleased by the night’s proceedings. Not only did he foil a foreign conspiracy but he caught the killer of a rich merchant.”

“Him? He didn’t do nought. It was you!”

Crispin waved his hand. “I care not. I have my freedom and that is enough.”

Jack settled on the floor by the fire and rubbed his upraised knees. “Blind me! They’ll hang him, won’t they? That will make Master Clarence the master of Walcote manor, then.”

They sat for a time listening to the timbers creak and the fire whisper in the hearth.

“In the morning,” Crispin said softly, “I shall see how Philippa fares. You brought her to Master Clarence safely, I trust.”

“Oh aye, Master. But it is already morning.” He rose and cracked open a shutter and looked out at a misty dawn. He shivered and closed it again and returned to the fire. “What of that cloth? Who’s got it now?”

“‘An offering made to the Lord by fire.’” Crispin smiled. “It’s been offered back to God. I burned it.”

Jack stopped rubbing his hands and stared at Crispin. “’Slud! Master! What made you do such a thing?”

Crispin stared down into his empty bowl. The wet wood gleamed, seeming to ask for more. “You know I don’t believe in such things, Jack.” Though even as he said it he remembered with a shiver his hours in the cell. He shook it off and stared into the flames. “So many have died trying to possess the Mandyllon. It seemed more hazardous than holy.” He positioned the bowl on his upraised fingers and turned the object, toying with it. “Besides, if there was the least possibility that it did have some power, I couldn’t let it fall to the hands of anyone who coveted it.”

“Was there no priest, no church you trusted? What of the abbot of Westminster? Or the Archbishop of Canterbury?”

“Not even them. Power corrupts. ‘We must as second best take the least of the evils.’ So said Aristotle. I made the choice. I stand by it.”

Jack took the bowl from Crispin’s fingers and refilled it with wine. He shook his head. “I suppose that’s the difference between the likes of you and me, Master. I’d never be able to take such responsibility.”

Crispin took the bowl and sipped its contents. “You forget. I was trained for many years to be a leader. I led many into battle, after all. And I ran my own estates and oversaw Lancaster’s affairs.”

“Aye. Far from my like, to be sure. Lords and servants. Miles apart.”

Crispin frowned at Jack’s words and silently drank, immersing his thoughts and his nose in the wine’s tangy aroma.

A knock on the door made them both turn. Jack rose, straightened his frayed tunic, and opened the door.

Philippa stood on the threshold clutching her hood to her face.

Crispin snapped to his feet and pulled his chemise to cover his bandaged shoulder. He felt a little vulnerable in his stocking feet.

“May I come in?” she asked, her voice husky.

Jack looked at Crispin and Crispin nodded. The boy motioned her in and slipped through the door behind her, closing it, but not before Crispin caught sight of his smile in the crack between door and jamb.

Crispin stared at the back of Philippa’s head when she’d lowered her hood. The golden hair glimmered with rusty streaks. A tantalizing curl sat at the base of her neck where the hair parted. Crispin thought long and hard about pressing his lips there.

She stared into the fire. Their last awkward meeting when he left her at the Boar’s Tusk rose in his mind, and he tingled with the same discomfort.

“Philippa, why are you here? Did Master Clarence tell you to leave?”

“No. He did not. He was most gracious, in fact.”

He took a step closer. Her nearness felt like heat on his face. “What’s happened?”

“I had to come as soon as I could. The whole house was in an uproar with Lionel being taken away. Maude is having a fit.” She said it with a certain satisfied slant to her mouth. “Clarence is ready to cast her out.”

“I see. These are quieter surroundings, then. Peaceful.”

She turned. The satisfied smile left her and the usual slope of her lids was not there. “There’s nothing peaceful about your lodgings.”

He moved to stand before the fire but not quite next to her. Smoke rolled over the hearthstone and trembled up his thighs. He smelled the aroma of burnt dreams. “Then why are you here? I intended to come to you this morning.”

“This can’t wait, I fear.” She raised her chin. “You see, Clarence has asked me to marry him.”

Something seemed to rush past him. He wasn’t entirely certain what it was. He felt it like a blizzard of ice crystals stinging his face or the slap of a woman’s hand. “These are…sudden tidings.”

“He’ll inherit all the family wealth, you see. And he—well, he says he trusts me to help him run the house and the business, since I knew it so well. I think also he took a fancy to me.”

“I see. It makes sense.” His chest was tight. He forgot to breathe. “It’s practical. You will retain your riches and your home. You will not do better than Clarence Walcote.”

She faced him squarely. “I haven’t had any other offers.”

He didn’t mean to, but he looked at her. Her face was harder than before. He owed it to all her recent experiences.

She opened her mouth and her red lips snapped down on the words. “Why don’t you tell me not to marry Clarence?”

“Why would I do that?”

“You could make an offer yourself.”

He turned his face away.

“Have you no feelings about me at all?”

He felt her glare on his cheek. He stiffened. “Is it not enough I confessed that I loved you?”

She shook her head. “The Mandyllon made you say it. But it can’t make you act on it.”

“Women,” he grumbled under his breath. “They want it all and only on their terms.”

“What other terms are there?” She smiled briefly. “Why did you not kiss me when I first came in?” He said nothing. She turned her back on the fire to look at him. She stood that way a long time. “Of course,” she said, sobering, “the true reason you will not make an offer to me is because knights don’t marry chambermaids. Ain’t that it?”

“I’m not a knight.”

“Oh aye, you are. In here,” and she tapped her chest. “Always. It is your true self and you can’t shake it. I saw it when you took me to the Boar’s Tusk. You couldn’t stand for people to see you hold me. What would they think, after all?”

“That’s not true.”

“You call that man Gilbert Langton your friend, but you can barely stand to be there. Oh, it’s a fine place to drink, because that is the purpose of such a place. But it’s not because of Master Gilbert. It’s because you can hide there.”

He turned assassin’s eyes on her. “Are you finished?”

“I thought my life was wretched. But yours is far worse. You’ve chosen a lonely life, Crispin.”

His frown deepened. “Not chosen.”

“I’m not so certain.”

He made a furious sound and walked in a circle, holding out his arms. “Look around you!” he burst out. “This is no great manor, no palace.”

“I didn’t ask for one.”

“No? Then why consider Clarence?”

“Because he asked me.” Her blunt answer stilled his tongue. “If you don’t want me to marry Clarence, then say so now.”

“Or forever hold my peace? I’ve already told you. This is no fit place to bring a wife.”

She made a defeated nod. “It’s a shame,” she said. “You might have been happy. But truth to tell, I don’t think you want to be.”

She turned to go and almost reached the door when she stopped. She pulled a small pouch from her scrip and placed it with care on the table. “It’s your payment. What the sheriff took and what Nicholas owed you. It’s only fair. You did find the Mandyllon and you saved me from Mahmoud. That makes you paid in full now, doesn’t it?” Her fingers lingered on the little pouch and then drew away. Her hand slid across the table till it fell flat against her thigh. “I don’t need palaces,” she whispered, not looking at him. “Neither do you.”

She hesitated, waiting for him, but his lips pressed grimly together.

With a sigh, she pulled open the door and walked across the threshold. Crispin lifted his head in time to see the tail end of her train ripple over the floorboards.

The door hung open and he stared at the empty hole for a long time, not thinking, not feeling, until Jack’s head poked in. “Master, may I come in?”

Crispin answered by dropping heavily into the chair and laying his arm on the table. He stared past the little pouch.

Jack slid into the room and closed the door. He stood for a moment at the doorway before he moved toward the fire. Toying with a folded parchment, he looked up at Crispin and handed it to him. “A messenger came and delivered this for you.”

Crispin turned it over to look at the wax seal, but it bore no arms. He let it rest on his thigh.

“I couldn’t help but hear through the door—”

Crispin stared at the pouch on the table with jaw clenched.

“Master. Why don’t you go after her?”

Crispin’s jaw relaxed and he sighed, feeling the years on his shoulders. He reached forward and touched the pouch. “Because I can’t dispute anything she said.”

“You ain’t a mighty lord now. What difference does it make who you marry?”

“Because it matters, Jack. She was right. It matters to me and it always will. The veil has been drawn aside and I was forced to look into myself. I’m not certain I liked what I saw.”

“Can’t a body change?”

“No. At least—it may take a very long time.” They both fell silent. Crispin remembered the parchment in his hand. He rose, strode to the fire, and flicked his thumbnail under the wax seal. He unfolded it and read:His Majesty was pleased that his taxes are safe again. Rest assured he knows to whom the credit truly falls. Perhaps the king will not stay angry forever. I counsel patience, Crispin. But in the meantime, I caution you from coming to court again.

God keep you.

The letter was unsigned but Crispin recognized Lancaster’s hand. He read it over once more and lowered the paper.

With his free hand he drew Philippa’s portrait from his purse. He cradled it in his hand and gazed at it. He looked toward the fire. For a moment he thought about tossing the painting in. Let the flames consume it as they had the Mandyllon. He had thought that burning the cloth would remove the truth. But it was never easy escaping the truth for long.

He glanced at the letter and then the miniature portrait, ran his finger along its gold-leafed frame, and slowly slipped it back in his purse.